From Jewish Renaissance, via Keith Kahn-Harris
Asaf Elia-Shalev’s recent book reveals the startling impact of the Black Panther movement on Israel after the Six-Day War. Keith Kahn-Harris speaks to the author about the legacy of these unlikely activists.
One of the most important recent additions to the English-speaking Jewish lexicon is the word ‘Ashkenormative’, meaning the privileging of Ashkenazi Judaism as if it were the ‘normal’ Judaism. Despite the fact that it was Sephardi Jews who founded what is considered the ‘modern’ British Jewish community, it is only recently that British Jews who are not Ashkenazi have had much success in eroding assumptions that Judaism means herring and gefilte fish.
In Israel, the process of challenging Ashkenazi hegemony goes back much further. As in the UK, a non-Ashkenazi presence in the land of Israel goes back centuries. However, hundreds of thousands of Jews with backgrounds that were Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) and Sephardi (ancestry going back to the Iberian peninsula) emigrated to Israel from Muslim countries – often following persecution and expulsion – in the years following Israel’s independence in 1948. These waves of immigrants irrevocably changed the demographic and social character of the Jewish state.
Originally published in Jewish Renaissance.
Dr Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and writer, based in London. He is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College and a senior research fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. He has a broad range of interests, including particular expertise in researching metal music scenes and the UK Jewish community. The author or co-author of eight books, editor of several collections and many articles and reviews, his career bridges academia and multiple other worlds. His work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, New Humanist, Prospect, Haaretz, The Forward, New Statesman and more. His most recent books are The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language (Icon) and What Does A Jew Look Like? (in collaboration with Rob Stothard).
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